Holsworthy and Okehampton Care farming week 4

What great mornings we have had !

The students did a fantastic job this morning feeding 16 calves with milk, nuts, cleaning them out, bedding them up and making sure they were all ok.  This is rather time consuming with several calves to sort out.

After this, we had Roy, a senior mechanic from Smallridges join us.  He came out in a huge 6155M John Deere tractor.  It was great to see the difference in technology used in the new tractors compared to our John Deere tractor which is now 20 years old.  Our tractor has had a lot of work done to it over the last 5 years so it still runs very well and is our main tractor.  This new one wouldn't fit in our sheds !

Roy did a great talk/demonstration to the students about what things to check on the tractor to make sure its running well - oil, fuel, PTO shaft safety, about the controls, the anti theft systems and tracking devices they all come fitted with now and the students all got to have a sit inside.

Roy then went on to explain how he became a mechanic, the options available to students now and what grades you may need.  This was very useful information as we have some budding agricultural mechanics amongst the students.

It was a fantastic morning, thank you Roy and thank you to Smallridges for supporting us.